Mike Swick seeks defining performance in third welterweight bout

Despite a dominant performance in a unanimous-decision victory over Marcus Davis at UFC 85, Swick doesn’t believe he has hit his stride as a welterweight. Never mind that he convincingly beat a fighter who had not lost in 11 consecutive fights over a nearly three-year period.

It wasn’t good enough for Swick.

“I don’t think I’ve really showcased my abilities at welterweight,” Swick (12-2 MMA, 7-1 UFC) told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) recently as he prepared to face Jonathan Goulet this week at UFC Fight Night 16. “I think this fight is going to showcase my ability. I’m healthy for this fight. I’m in shape for this fight. I feel as good about this fight as I have in some of my best middleweight fights.”

The bout against Goulet (22-9 MMA, 4-3 UFC) has been a long time in the making. The two were supposed to tangle on the UFC Fight Night 11 card last year in Swick’s 170-pound debut, but Swick was forced out of the fight due to a rib injury.

Goulet stoked the fires for the planned September 2007 bout with a message-board post saying Swick was trying to get out of the fight because he was scared. Swick shot back by saying the comment made Goulet sound desperate.

The two have taken a more collegial approach this time around, but Swick is still betting that Goulet brings a heavy dose of aggressiveness to the octagon. That was lacking in Swick’s most recent opponent, which made it difficult for the strike-first fighter to utilize those stand-up skills.

“I think it was a pretty dominant win over Davis, and I think that said a lot,” Swick said, “but it wasn’t necessarily the way I wanted to fight. It threw me off when he went for takedowns those first two rounds. Davis is a great conventional boxer, and I totally didn’t expect him to take me down for the first two rounds, but when he did, I tried to counter and show that I could control him.”

While it was surprising that an adept boxer such as Davis didn’t try to strike more with Swick, it worked out for the best, given that Swick was nursing a painful elbow injury.

“It actually had been ongoing for quite a while, and I had been training through it,” said Swick, who was coping with the bum elbow for more than a year. “It hasn’t given me the confidence and ability to throw my right hand in quite some time. Basically, if I punched with the right hand and missed and extended the arm straight out, it would swell up and it would be pretty much useless for the next few days.”

Right after the Davis fight, Swick, 29, had surgery to remove bone fragments and clean up the joint. After a short rehabilitation, he was able to resume intense training, and says he’s at a hundred percent going in against Goulet.

The nagging elbow injury has certainly been a factor in why fans haven’t recently seen the Swick of 2005 and 2006 when was living up to the billing of his “Quick” nickname. In a span of four fights, Swick needed all of five minutes and 10 seconds to beat Joe Riggs, Steve Vigneault, Gideon Ray and Alex Schoenauer. However, in his past four fights, he’s gone the distance each time.

From Swick’s vantage point, that’s just part of the fight game. He feels no pressure to finish fights in a hurry.

“I’m not trying to live up to that moniker; I’m not trying to have a quick fight,” said Swick, who believes he’s a stronger fighter at 170 pounds. “I don’t want to go out there on Dec. 10 and knock him out in 10 seconds. I prefer to have a first-round victory, yes, but I haven’t showcased my skills. I’ve trained so hard for this fight, and I have improved so much. I want to show the world how much work I’ve put in.”

He should get the opportunity against Goulet, who’s looked sharp in his past three victories, two coming by TKO.

“Stylistically, it’s going to be a great match-up,” Swick said. “He’s an exciting fighter. He brings it, and he’s not afraid to throw down and mix it up. I’m hoping we don’t even clinch.”

The recent controversy between UFC President Dana White and Swick’s American Kickboxing Academy camp has been a bit of a distraction during Swick’s prep for the bout. His name was pulled into some of the media coverage of the verbal back and forth between White and Jon Fitch. However, Swick has remained diplomatic through it all, and there was never an issue with him pushing back on the terms of the licensing agreement the UFC asked him to sign.

“My stuff (with the UFC) was settled way before that (controversy) ever happened,” he said.

Swick has three fights left on his current UFC contract and adds that he has a solid relationship with the promotion.

The Swick-Goulet bout is the co-main event of “UFC Fight Night: UFC Fights For The Troops” on Wednesday night in Fayetteville, N.C.

(Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 16 event serves as a fundraiser for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Learn more or make a donation at fallenheroesfund.ufc.com.)

* * * *

Steve Sievert is the lead staff writer and business columnist for MMAjunkie.com. He is also the former MMA beat writer and lead blogger for the Houston Chronicle.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?